Rama Reef News

December 1, 2014

Our house reef is one of the prettiest dives in the area of Candidasa. Besides the beautiful coral formations, reaching up to the surface from their 9 meter deep foundation, you will almost always be the only diver; this is what makes it even more attractive. It is kind of a secret reef that nobody else knows, so sssshh!
Not so long ago, we realized that soon we would have a new inhabitant on our reef – a new generation of cuttlefish! While we were out fun diving, we bumped into a pack of some 5 cuttlefish depositing their eggs in between the coral. All we have to do now is sit and wait for them to grow a bit before we get the chance to chase them for some photos.

Cuttlefish Fun Facts

Cuttlefish are amazing creatures; they are not only inspiration for many alien movies, but they are also inspiration for other everyday things too.

1The way that they control their buoyancy was an inspiration for submarines – cuttlefish have a unique bone which is porous and full of small chambers. With the process of exchanging gas-to-liquid within these chambers a cuttlefish can hover effortlessly, descend or ascend without any apparent move.
2It has 3 hearts– 2 for their gills and one for circulating blood through its body. The way cuttlefish propels themselves through the water is similar to that of a jet ski, and sometimes it looks as fast as one too.
3 Cuttlefish’s eyes are speculated to be fully developed before birth and start observing their surroundings while still in the egg, and may prefer to hunt the prey they saw before hatching! Although cuttlefish cannot see colour (we still don`t know how that is even possible!), they can perceive the polarization of light, which enhances their perception of contrast. Unlike the vertebrate eye, there is no blind spot, because the optic nerve is positioned behind the retina, so there is no place to hide from them!
4 If we were to think of cuttlefish camouflage ability in terms of a computer’s imaging, they have pigmented cells corresponding to 359DPI! Our high resolution print images are 300DPI, how is that for a comparison?

These pigmented cells are divided into sacks of diverse colours and hidden beneath their skin in different layers and distances from the surface. As they squeeze these sacks against the skin, gives them the ability to shift and launch truly bizarre displays of rippling colours to either intimidate rivals or hypnotize prey or seduce a mate. Remember LED walls? Something like that!

And have I mentioned that cuttlefish are also exceedingly clever! It makes them predators of the highest order but do not worry, we are still too big to be on their list. But do hurry up to come and see some of them at Rama Reef!

DIVE EAST BALI

GALLERY

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